Maryland Business for Responsive Government kicked off the revival of its dormant political action committee Tuesday with the hope of raising $250,000 to spend on state elections in 2014.
With that much money behind it, the MBRG effort to refuel the Business Leadership PAC would more than fill a void left earlier this year when the Maryland Chamber of Commerce mothballed its affiliated committee.
The leadership PAC will “unify our voices and consolidate our resources so we can have a voice in Annapolis,” said PAC Chairman Caleb Ewing Jr. to the crowd of about 100 before they ate their $175-per-plate salmon and steak at the BWI Airport Marriott.
“The businesses in Maryland can’t afford to continue to be an ATM for the state,” he said.
Tuesday’s attendees included Annapolis lobbyist Bruce C. Bereano, retired Maryland Retailers Association President Tom Saquella, Republican fundraiser Dick Hug and former House Minority Leader Ellen Sauerbrey, a two-time gubernatorial candidate and now co-chair of MBRG.
There was also a large segment of the Republican bloc in the General Assembly in the crowd, including at least 13 delegates and six senators, among them Senate Minority Leader Nancy Jacobs of Harford and Cecil counties.
“It’s just important that we have a business presence in Annapolis. They’re not being heard,” said Sen. Allan H. Kittleman, the Howard County Republican who preceded Jacobs as minority leader. “The chamber does what they can do but they need help. The unions are awfully powerful in Annapolis.”
The influence of labor unions was a prominent theme for John Fund, a Wall Street Journal columnist and Fox News contributor.
“I’ve followed Maryland politics,” Fund said. “It’s a challenge.”
But, he said the economic malaise and weight of budget crunches at the national, state and local levels can force a “different conversation with the electorate,” one that could lead small-government reforms a right-leaning audience like the one he addressed Tuesday would support.
“The old platitudes and old placating won’t do,” Fund said. “We’ve run out of time and we’ve run out of money.”
MBRG President Kim Burns said the organization plans to hold one fundraiser a year to fill the PAC. Figures from Tuesday’s event were not immediately made available.
The PAC will make contributions to candidates for governor, comptroller, senator, delegate and, potentially, attorney general, Burns said.
“It’s become clearer and clearer to us the business community needs a bigger voice in Annapolis,” she said.
PACs in Maryland can skirt the contribution limits of $4,000 per candidate and $10,000 per election cycle by making independent expenditures in a race and transferring money to political committees. Transfers are limited to $6,000 per committee.
Chamber President and CEO Kathleen T. Snyder said the board of the Maryland Chamber PAC decided in January to let the fund go fallow. The PAC was nearly emptied during the 2010 election cycle.
Chamber members looking to donate will be directed to the MBRG fund, Snyder said, and the committees will even share some leadership — Betty Buck, president of Buck Distributing Co. in Upper Marlboro, chaired the chamber’s PAC board and now serves on the board of the Business Leadership PAC.
The chamber PAC spent $24,000 last year, according to campaign finance records maintained by the University of Maryland Center for American Politics and Citizenship. Donations were spread to the campaigns of 10 Democrats and six Republicans, including party leaders and the heads of key committees and subcommittees. The chamber PAC spent $36,000 in 2006.
“The PAC board and our board thought we should let it become inactive for the upcoming cycle. Because of the recession it was getting harder to raise money,” Snyder said. “Some of the larger companies have their own PACs, and some of the smaller companies were saying, ‘We just can’t afford to do this right now.’”
She said the PAC endorsements could sometimes make harder the jobs of the four registered chamber lobbyists, the largest business lobbying group in Annapolis.
“Sometimes if the PAC endorses one candidate and another is elected, they have very long memories,” Snyder said.
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